Never Have I Ever: Pilot

What are We Watching?

Never Have I Ever is a coming of age series on Netflix that was created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher. The show ran from 2020-2023 and we are going to watch it together episode by episode.

Overview

The pilot introduces us to 15 year old Devi, who is a first generation Indian-American high school student in Southern California. The entire show is narrated by a tennis player named John McEnroe.

This is John McEnroe.

I was actually happy to hear a narrator that was a little more original than other shows that I have watched. John Mcenroe was Devi’s Dad’s favorite tennis player. Her parents stayed very close to their Indian roots after moving to the United States.

Some of the lore of the show is that Devi’s dad died during a concert where she was playing the harp and it scarred her to the point that she had a psychotic break and lost the use of her legs for three months. Thankfully, like some of the rest enough she was stopped in her tracks by someone hot enough to walk again.

Let’s Meet Some Characters

That person for her was Paxton Hall-Yoshida.

In this episode we are also introduced to her two best friends, Fabiola and Eleanor. Fabiola is into Robotics while Eleanor is into Drama, acting or otherwise. She goes into her Sophmore year focused that she has to shed the identity as a paralyzed Indian girl whose Dad died during a concert. She makes her friends promise that this is the year they are going to be cool. More importantly, this is the year that they are all going to get Boyfriends.

” We are glamorous women of color who deserve a sexy high school life.”

We also meet Kamala in the pilot episode who is Devi’s cousin who moved in after Devi’s Dad died. She is the gorgeous cousin who everyone is obsessed with but thankfully the character has a lot of depth in her own right. She is a biologist.

Kamala is informed that an arranged marriage has been set up for her but she doesn’t want it. She wants to be a Biologist and build a career.

The UN

We also meet Ben Gross in this episode who calls Devi and her friends, “The UN: unfuckable nerds.” Ben and Devi are always in competition with eachother to be the best. I actually like their banter a lot. Ben name drops about his famous dad almost as much as Tahani name drops in The Good place and he’s not even famous, hes a lawyer.

The episode has quite a bit going on but I will be continuing with the highlights.

Devi’s therapist is Dr. Ryan who Devi wants to give her sex advice but Miss. Ryan informs her how creepy that is.

Eleanor is actually already dating a guy from the tech crew names Oliver and she told Fabiola but not Devi because she didn’t want Devi to overreact.

Shocker: Devi overreacted.

She gets mad, breaks a window with a book that was blessed by the Gods, blames a bird, runs to her therapist.

Then she finds Paxton and asks him to have sex with her.

He says yes.

And that is all for the pilot.